Monday, 28 October 2013

Little Busters! Refrain - Episode 4

Kurugaya seems to have vanished without a trace, but it's some of her parting words that are playing on Riki's mind as this week's Little Busters! Refrain begins - a demand that he look after Rin.

This request is brought into relief yet further by a stalker of Naoe revealing herself before dealing him an impromptu confession to ponder.  Happy though he is to find a cute girl telling him that she loves him, all he can think about in the aftermath of this confession is Rin...could this mean that his romantic feelings are, in fact, dedicated to her?  This seems to be further cemented by Riki's sense of concern when Kyousuke tells him that a boy confessed to Rin not so long ago before being promptly shot down, but while Naoe spends his time fretting it seems that the object of all that worry has no such qualms and straightforwardly suggests that they should start going out.  Well, that's that then, I suppose.


With that agreed upon, all that remains is for the pair to tell all of their friends, all of whom are happy for this new couple, albeit tinged with a little regret and jealousy here and there.  It's Kyousuke's reaction and subsequent actions which garner the most interest, as there is clearly more to this actions, responses and knowledge than meets the eye.  With cat-cum-messenger delivering Riki and Rin a supposedly final task to handle however, perhaps all of these elements are finally coming together.

In spite of some pretty hefty tonal shifts throughout this episode of Little Busters, it actually worked pretty well - its foreshadowing is blatant but offset pretty well by a continued sense of mystery, and Riki and Rin's relationship just about manages to come off as feeling like something that would actually come about rather than purely being foisted upon them by the show's narrative requirements.  I'm still not enjoying this series anything like as much as other Key visual novel adaptations, but I have to admit that my curiosity on where this show is headed has been well and truly piqued by this point.


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